Design
courseIt’s
not just food that propels a new restaurant into popularity.
Interior design is just as tantalizing.

By KRISTINE
HANSEN

C.
1880, designed by Libby and Patrick Castro of LP/w Design
Studios.

Three new Walker’s
Point eateries embrace late-1800s décor with cutting-edge design that
relies upon craftsmanship using mostly salvaged materials. Flashy,
showy accents akin to many urban dining rooms are discarded in favor
of a cozy ambiance that’s in perfect pitch with its farm-to-table
approach.

When c. 1880 chef/owner
Thomas Hauck — a Culinary Institute of America grad who cooked at
Citronelle in Washington, D.C., and Mason Street Grill — hired
designers Libby and Patrick Castro of LP/w Design Studios in Fox
Point, the three decided to tap into the Industrial Revolution. Tying
into the year electricity was invented — also the date of the
building — lights drape below the ceiling on hooks, creating an
orange glow at night. Bay View furniture artist Matt Connell crafted
tables out of Douglas Fir to match Wishbone chairs and distressed-wood
flooring. Wooden crates from Brightonwoods Orchard house liquor
bottles. Framed patents of various inventions, along with historic
Milwaukee images, are hung on ivory walls. But the penultimate are
above the bar and in the front room: softly muted art featuring
Milwaukee during the late 1880s. In back, tufted-leather banquettes
surround a fireplace with glass apothecary jars on its mantel.
"Everything has this feel of being made just for you," says
Libby Castro, pointing to the glass-beaker Chemex coffee makers, a
definite precursor to drip makers and espresso machines, and a nod to
Hauck’s love for inventing (he tinkers with molecular gastronomy,
dehydrating, canning, sous-vide and pickling).

Braise,
designed by Paul Sherrer of Think Drawer.

Two blocks west, Braise
— the farm-to-table restaurant supporting chef/owner Dave Swanson’s
growing empire of a cooking school and Community Supported Agriculture
project — retains that same Old Milwaukee feel. Paul Sherrer of
Think Drawer was hired to execute Swanson’s vision, using wood
rescued from a Burlington barn for walls in the lounge that are nicely
offset with original Cream City brick. Tables were constructed from
what used to be bowling lanes in the now-closed adjacent bowling
alley. Former church pews are also used for seating. Beneath the
bartop, once subflooring in that same bowling alley, are collages of
vintage, handwritten recipes and photos of farm-fresh food torn from
the now-defunct Gourmet. Mason jars are interspersed with liquor
bottles within a bar wall constructed from local barn wood, and
reappear as light pendants above a bar counter just outside the open
kitchen.

INdustri
Café, designed by Flux Design.

Flux Design was tapped
to work on Walker’s Point eatery INdustri Café, which opened in
early 2011. INdustri debuted a private dining room this spring that
seats up to 18 people — and is a new hot spot for business lunches.
With the original metal freight-elevator door on one wall, it’s in
perfect pitch with the building’s history, which dates to the 1880s
when it was Milwaukee Tool & Machine Shop. Flux Design also
created a half wall between the bar and dining room that’s an artful
mix of salvaged woods and iron work, with mesh metal squares on top
that allow light to shine through, yet give diners privacy. It’s a
stylish sibling to the wall separating the dining room from the
private room, with recycled stained-glass windows laid between wood
panels and metal strips.